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Old-Time Radio Collection

Topics: Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Bickersons, Alfred Hitchcock, Spellbound, The Shadow, Will Rogers, radio show, comedy, radioplay, Who's on First
Language: English
Item Size: 713.8M

In the 1970s through the 1990s, several companies offered cassettes, and later CDs, of these and other radio shows dating from the 1920s to the 1950s. These cheap, ostensibly public domain recordings were widely available in the U.S. at discount stores, gas stations, and in Sears catalogs. In the mid-1980s, someone copied some of the cassettes to reel-to-reel tape so he could listen to them all at once. The files here are digitized from that reel.

Since these are lo-fi recordings (no treble/high end, other than tape hiss), the audio was resampled to 24 kHz or 16 kHz as appropriate, in order to save space and reduce noise.

Contents, along with the cassette program numbers:

Jack Benny - 2 shows - website with detailed info

program GS408 side 1 - The Jack Benny Show #117 - Guests Binnie Barnes & Mark Sandrich (1939-04-23) (29:35)
program GS408 side 2 - The Jack Benny Show #111 - Carmichael is Sick (1939-03-12) (28:21)

Burns & Allen - 2 shows

program GS409 side 1 - The Burns & Allen Show - George Tries to Make Gracie Look Young (1945-06-18) (25:21)
program GS409 side 2 - The Burns & Allen Show - George Prepares to Entertain the Troops (1945-06-25) (25:00)

Abbott & Costello - 2 shows (includes "Who's on First") - PDF (elsewhere) with detailed info

program GS407 side 1 - Abbott & Costello (1947-04-14) (30:38)
program GS407 side 2 - Abbott & Costello (1946-12-05) (29:56)

The Bickersons - 5 shows

program GS411 side 1 - The Bickersons - unknown episode + John Goes to Las Vegas (incomplete) (19:38)
program GS411 side 2 - The Bickersons - Car Repairs and Teaching Blanche to Drive + show #9 (1951) + show #5 (1951) (31:48)

Screen Directors' Playhouse - 1 show

program GS415 sides 1 & 2 - Screen Directors' Playhouse - Alfred Hitchcock - Spellbound (1951-01-25) (59:16)

The Shadow - 1 show

program GS413 side 1 - The Shadow - The Society of the Living Dead (1938-01-23) (31:18)

Will Rogers - 8 shows

program GS412 side 2 - Will Rogers - unknown but said to be from (1935-04-21) + Address to Traffic Chiefs (1923-06-02) + Timely Topics (1923-02-26) + The Congressional Record (1935-05-12) + President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief Broadcast (1931-10-18) (33:14)
program GS412 side 1 - The Good Gulf Show with Will Rogers (1935-04-21) + Government Money (1935-04-07) + Will Rogers Nominates Henry Ford for President (1923) (33:19)

Addeddate: 2022-09-30 11:21:02
Identifier: old-time-radio-collection
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